Mother, Maiden, and Crone
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: The Goddess comes in three parts, and he sees them all in his beloved Ororo. RoLo. Second in Will's Halloween stories for my beloved Jack and our darling babies, year 2012.


Title: "Mother, Maiden, and Crone"  
Dedicated To: With infinite love to my wonderous, magical, and always inspirational beloved husband, Jack, with whom I'm blessed to be celebrating our seventh anniversary! And, as always, to our darling children, too!  
Author: Pirate Turner  
Rating: G  
Summary: The Goddess comes in three parts, and he sees them all in his beloved Ororo.  
Warnings: Het  
Word Count: 1,092  
Date Written: 21 August, 2012  
Series: The second of Pirate Turner's Halloween stories for 2012  
Disclaimer: Logan/Wolverine, Ororo "Storm" Munroe, the X-Men, and all other recognizable characters mentioned within are © & TM Marvel comics and Disney, not the author; are used without permission; and may not be used without permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

There are those who claim she is no longer a Goddess, even those who believe she never was, but Logan knows the truth. If ever there was a Goddess who walked the Earth in mortal form, his beloved Ororo is that woman. He knows enough of her religion to know that the Goddess comes in three parts - Mother, Maiden, and Crone -, and he has seen them all in the woman he loves.

The Mother is apparent any time her people need her. Rather it's on or off the battlefield, she's always there for their team mates. She's helped to mend many broken hearts over the years and managed to make the X-Men smile when no other could. Her gentle touches, infinite concern, and loving ways have healed many shattered bones and souls over her time leading the X-Men and even when she hasn't been their leader. Unlike Scott, or even Xavier, she's always put her people first.

That's remained true with her people in Africa and the Morlocks as well as mutantkind. She even wed a man she didn't love and stayed with him for a while to aid the African nation. She did things for her people that no other woman could or would; not just chasing away droughts and filling empty river beds but giving of herself, heart and body, and sacrificing her very freedom to help her people. She made another sacrifice for the Morlocks, surrendering them back over to Callisto when she realized that she could not be the leader they needed.

Logan knows both were amongst the hardest things she's ever had to do. She gave a part of herself to the African people and to the Morlocks both, a part that she will never be able to regain and whose loss has made her a stronger and wiser woman. There isn't an X-Man on this island that she hasn't advised at one time or another, and her advice is always wise, her words the very things they need to hear at the time she speaks them, regardless of rather or not they want to hear them. In that role of giving advice, that he's secretly ashamed to admit has caused him to hold his claws at her throat before, lays the Crone part of her personality.

As much as he's hated her for the advice she's given him at times, almost always without being asked, Logan knows he's a better man for listening to it, even if he listened too late. They're all better for listening to and following Ororo. Just knowing her, he believes, has made them better people, not just fighters but lovers, friends, and family. Scott and Charles give the credit to Jean, but Logan knows Ororo is the glue that keeps their family together. Without her, they fell, but with her, they will succeed if not in their mission or even in their Dream - in their lifetime for he knows, sooner or later, it will come true -, then, at the very least, and the most important, in keeping their family alive and together.

Keeping their team as being much more than a team, keeping their family together is important for many reasons, but to Logan, no reason is more valuable than in seeing his Ororo happy. She's always at her most joyous, and the skies are their bluest, when their family is together and there's no great evil endangering them. It is in these times, like now as the children mutants trick or treat and their elders dance and party the night away while taking breaks to treat the kids, that she graces him with her most beautiful smiles.

She seems not to have a care in the world, though he knows that thoughts of how best to help their family next are never far from her mind. She delights in the bats flying about on this All Hallow's Eve, the fireworks Jubilee sets off by hand, Gambit's and Bobby's creative decorations of ice and cards, the myriad of costumes they all wear (though he only for her and Jubilee), and even Marrow, who's had one too many, throwing bones in wide hoops in vain efforts to catch the moon with eyes as big and bright as a child's. It's as though she's seen none of this before. Indeed, some of the celebrations are new, but most happen every year. She always reacts the same way, though, and he loves to see the innocent delight of the Maiden come out in his soul mate.

Somewhere on the island, the clocks are beginning to strike midnight. He can hear them if he listens close enough, but he doesn't need a timepiece to tell him that midnight is approaching. He can tell by the way the moon, made silver and full by Ororo's own Witchery, rides high in the night sky. He leaves her side for just a moment. They've been dancing and celebrating all night, but he knows the time has come. He returns to her as fast as he left and holds out her special broom with a smile.

Ororo takes her broom from him, her blue eyes sparkling dazzlingly. He beams almost shyly as she places a sweet but chaste kiss upon his smiling lips. He'd like to go with her, but he knows this is one of the things she has to do alone or so he thinks. He could never know that his beloved Ororo, so special and unique in his eyes for so many reasons, the only real Witch and Goddess he's ever truly known, is, in actuality, joined by many other Witches from all across the globe, each riding through their own special means.

He watches her as she rides the broom and the winds with a pride unlike any other he's ever felt swelling in his heart. One by one, the other X-Men come to stand beside him. Jubilee's first, followed by Hank, then Bobby, Remy and Rogue, Charles and Magnus, who, for this one night, he doesn't hate. He loses count when Magneto comes, however, but it doesn't matter how they come or in what order. It barely matters even that they're there, watching and waiting as he is, for their Goddess to return from another triumphant ride into the new year. What matters is that she's coming home, he'll be here for her, and throughout this year, too, like the last few years before it and all the years to come, he'll love her all through the year and beyond.

**The End**


End file.
